As is well known, the game of golf is difficult to master and devotees spend considerable amounts of time in practicing the various strokes which are needed during a game. One of the most subtle of these strokes, and one which requires the most practice, is the putt. For this purpose, putting practice greens are provided at most golf courses. Furthermore, numerous devices have been proposed heretofore to enable golfers to obtain practice putting indoors, such as at home. Many of the putting practice devices serve the purpose of sequentially presenting a plurality of golf balls to enable the golfer to shoot a series of putts. Other prior art putting practice devices serve to indicate the angle with which the club strikes the ball as a guide to the resulting motion which this will cause as the ball moves.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention however, the following U.S. patents were considered related:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. INVENTOR ISSUED ______________________________________ 3,510,136 Ruspoli, E. 5 May 1970 3,894,739 Goldstein, R. 15 July 1975 4,194,648 Stanton, R. 25 March 1980 ______________________________________
The patents to Ruspoli and Stanton each disclose devices for sequentially presenting a plurality of balls, while the device of Goldstein serves to indicate whether the club is properly aligned as it strikes the ball. However, none of these references provides any indication of the movement of the club after it strikes the ball. On the other hand, as any serious golfer knows, "follow through" is an extremely important factor in any stroke, including putting. Furthermore, none of the prior art putting practice devices are capable of use both indoors and on a golf course.